(1977)
On Tattoine whiney teenager Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) lives on a moisture farm with his Aunt and Uncle. They buy the droids, but are killed by Imperial Storm Troopers. Meanwhile Luke has met Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guiness), who has cleverly eluded the Empire's Jedi-genocide by moving to Tattoine and changing his name to Old Ben Kenobi. Lucky the Empire never looked in the phone book really. Here he wanders around in Jedi robes cleaving off limbs in bar fights with his lightsabre. He's also keeping an eye on Luke, whom he hid on Tattoine from his former pupil, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the Darkside. It's fortunate the Empire don't know he exists, because Kenobi never thought to change his name from Skywalker.
Obi-Wan decides to train Luke as a Jedi, despite causing the extinction of the Jedi and the downfall of the Republic last time he tried to train anyone. Perhaps he's realised where he went wrong. They decide to go to Alderaan to fight the Empire. They hire Han Solo (Harrison Ford), a smuggler, to take them. Before he leaves the bar Solo has an encounter with Greedo, a bounty hunter who works for Jabba the Hutt, to whom Solo owes money. Solo shoots Greedo. Only in the Special Edition the scene has been, rather poorly, tweaked, so that greedo fires first, at Solo's head, and manages to miss, despite only being on the side of a table. This pointless tampering only makes Greedo look like an incredibly inept bounty hunter and Solo less mean and hard.
The Death Star has destroyed Alderaan by the time they get there, so the Millenium Falcon, Solo's ship, is captured by the Empire. The heroes, though, elude capture and are free to run amok. Obi-Wan Kenobi elects to go and disable the tractor beam, while Han and Luke rescue Princess Leia.
The Death Star's tractor beam controls are on a small ledge over a huge drop. I love the way structures on Star Wars movies are always huge. but with massive open spaces inside with narrow walkways over them. The archetects must be constantly trying to push the limits of what they can get away with and still get funding for. Maybe the trend starts on Naboo, where the Emporer was brought up, they have those pointless walkways that Darth Maul and Jinn and Kenobi leap between in their fight. There's never any safety rails or anything. They must lose the occasional Stormtrooper, his vision limited by his helmet, over the edge.
When the Stormtroopers break into the control room where C-3PO and R2-D2 are hiding, one of the ones on the left bangs his head on the bottom of the door, with an audible clunk. Most people probably know about this, but it's worth mentioning. Thankfully Lucas even left in for the Special Edition.
Obi-Wan Kenobi bumps into his ex-pupil Darth Vader on his way back. Their lightsabre duel seems a bit insipid after the incredible choreography of Episode One, but it is an old bloke and a half-robot I suppose. The dialogue is absolutely classic though, and will become even more significant when episodes two and three arrive.
I don't quite understand why Obi-Wan Kenobi sacrifices himself, Luke and the others are making a much better job of their escape before he turns off his lightsabre and prompts Luke to scream his name. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool moment, but a little pointless maybe. Sir Alec Guiness is excellent as Obi-Wan Kenobi, providing much-needed gravitas on the Rebel's side; provided for the Empire by the great Peter Cushing as Vader's boss, Grand Moff Tarkin. Luke seems much more despondant at Kenobi's passing than that of his Aunt and Uncle, but he's soon over it and having a whale of a time shooting at TIE fighters.
The heroes escape in the Millenium Falcon, and head straight for the Rebel base, despite suspecting that they have been set up and that the Empire are tracking them. Indeed they are, and take the Death Star to Yavin, for some reason coming out of hyperspace on the other side of the planet, giving the Rebels time to launch an attack. The only chance the rebels have is to hit a two-metre-wide exhaust port on the Death Star with their cool X-Wing Fighters. The battle is amazing, extremely well shot and exciting, and you get a satisfaction from Luke using the Force to destroy the Death Star that is completely lacking from Episode One when Anakin does a similar job by just arsing about and trying to be cute.
Why does Chewbacca go to the medal-awarding ceremony at the end? he walks up the aisle with Luke and Han, then stands there like a tit when the gongs are dished out and he doesn't get one. Poor Chewbacca.